October 2, 2016

Category: Posts

Author: Charles

Concealed Intent 1.1 Progress Report

September is over and the scheduled month of dev work for Concealed Intent 1.1 complete. The amount achieved was about as much as expected, although not as much as hoped. Since the last update Steam turn notifications are working, but it was a little harder than anticipated. Then came a new skirmish objective (Gather) and a bunch of bug fixes (mainly for Linux). Unfortunately that means there was not time for extra work on campaign missions or online. Still, the update is a large body of work and I’m glad to get it done, the game will be better for it. Now I just need to test it extensively before release! The plan is to give myself a fortnight of testing, so look for the update in mid-October (barring major issues).

Looking at my Concealed Intent todo list I am amazed by how short it is – the shortest it has been since starting! It contains probably about a fortnight of online server improvements (not visible to players) and another fortnight of campaign/skirmish/cosmetic improvements. There are also a half-dozen “nice-to-haves”. Given this list, I am inclined to do a month’s work for a 1.2 update. However, it will not be until next year – hopefully earlier rather than later. After Concealed Intent 1.1 is released I will start work on a much smaller space-themed game codenamed “Blockade Runner” (because I haven’t thought of anything better yet).

Here are the final notes on the original (and intentionally overly ambitious) update plan:

Small backend improvements – the main things here are an automated build system and better feedback management. Both are complete.

Cosmetic and control improvements – most of these were done as part of 1.0.1. A few more have been done – most notably an onscreen shielding effect and a plan breakdown on the player focus buttons.

Linux support – There is now a Linux build for internal testing, so far it has performed just like the PC/Mac version.

Bugfixes – many bugfixes completed and the issue list is empty again.

Steam turn notifications – Working, but needs more testing.

Balance & extra campaign missions – a little balance work has been done, but there are no new campaign missions.

Extra skirmish mode making better use of tentative contacts and neutral unknowns – done, the new Gather objective has the player rushing to collect supply pods against regenerating enemies.